What is a hybrid event?

Since March 2020, we’ve all experienced the power of online events. People are tribal and have a constant need for human interaction which sadly the online world has only partially been able to replicate.  So what is a hybrid event, and how can they help meet our basic human needs?

Businesses wishing to portray themselves in a highly professional light have needed much more than a laptop on the kitchen table and whilst sight of the children’s drawings on the fridge door is okay for a Friday night Zoom quiz, more savvy clients are demanding a higher level of professionalism for their virtual events.

Business communications in the live world has always been taken seriously with beautifully designed stage sets and precise split-second technical execution with a team of experts in the background supporting clients through every step of their event.

Hybrid events are the perfect blend of live and virtual events allowing businesses to communicate in a highly professional and polished way in either a studio with all of the technical support that affords, in an event venue with services on hand or simply in their offices to give a personal touch. A hybrid event can have a live and remote audience or just a remote audience that join from their homes and offices around the globe.

No need for presenters to wrestle with their hardware from the kitchen table trying to connect to a stream with the opening words to every presentation “can you hear me?” Instead leaving all of the worry of anything technical going wrong, with the experts who are on-hand in the next room to deal with any issues as they arise.

The other more important thing about hybrid events is the familiarity of working as part of a team of colleagues to present together from a studio. Presenting to a green dot on a webcam is really unnerving whereas the ability to bounce off one another during a live presentation harps back to the longing for human interaction we all have within us….”Are you there?….Can you hear me?”……Of course they can, they are right there with you!

Whilst the world has changed a lot since March 2020, there is still very much the opportunity to ensure hybrid events are done responsibly with all the Covid-safe measures observed to keep everyone involved as safe as possible.

Hybrid events are here to stay. The use of technology in the events industry has been hugely accelerated because of the pandemic but this is nothing new. Businesses are starting to understand that virtual and hybrid events can make a huge difference to the bottom line and what used to require a huge investment in venue and production spend can now be achieved in a much more cost-efficient way. However, more importantly, the environmental impact of reducing travel to and from events will start to tick more and more boxes in corporate sustainability ambitions.

Finally, as the world slowly starts to heal once again, the tribal desires for people to get together and socially interact will start to see audiences begin to appear, but the need for speakers or audiences to fly-in from other parts of the planet may not be something we ever see again.